- Brazil lifts ban on Musk's X, ending standoff over disinformation
- Harris holds slight edge nationally over Trump: poll
- Chelsea edge Real Madrid in Women's Champions League, Lyon win
- Japan PM to dissolve parliament for 'honeymoon' snap election
- 'Diego Lives': Immersive Maradona exhibit hits Barcelona
- Brazil Supreme Court lifts ban on Musk's X
- Scientists sound AI alarm after winning physics Nobel
- Six-year-old girl among missing after Brazil landslide
- Nobel-winning physicist 'unnerved' by AI technology he helped create
- Mexico president rules out new 'war on drugs'
- Israeli defense minister postpones trip to Washington: Pentagon
- Europe skipper Donald in talks with Garcia over Ryder return
- Kenya MPs vote to impeach deputy president in historic move
- Former US coach Berhalter named Chicago Fire head coach
- New York Jets fire head coach Saleh: team
- Australia crush New Zealand in Women's T20 World Cup
- US states accuse TikTok of harming young users
- 'Evacuate now, now, now': Florida braces for next hurricane
- US Supreme Court skeptical of challenge to 'ghost guns' regulation
- Sparks fly as Orban berates EU 'elites' in parliament trip
- US finalizes rule to remove lead pipes within a decade
- Solanke hungry for second England cap after seven-year wait
- Gilded canopy restored at Vatican basilica
- Zverev scrapes through, Djokovic cruises to Shanghai Masters last 16
- Trump secretly sent Covid tests to Putin: Bob Woodward book
- Gauff answers critics: 'It's hard to win all the time'
- Neural networks, machine learning? Nobel-winning AI science explained
- China says raised 'serious concerns' with US over trade curbs
- Boeing delivers 27 MAX jets in September despite strike
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free in 2025 after cleared of other sex crimes
- Italy seek Nations League consistency as Germany continue rebuild
- From boom to budgeting as reality bites for Saudi football
- Stock markets diverge as Hong Kong sinks, oil prices fall
- US trade gap narrowest in five months as imports slip
- Stay and 'you are going to die': Florida braces for next hurricane
- England 96-1 after Salman's century lifts Pakistan to 556
- Hollywood star Idris Elba champions African cinema in Ghana
- Djokovic rolls Cobolli to make Shanghai Masters last 16
- Milan's Hernandez receives two-game suspension after referee rant
- Geoffrey Hinton, soft-spoken godfather of AI
- Ex-Barcelona and Spain great Iniesta retires aged 40
- Duo wins Physics Nobel for 'foundational' AI breakthroughs
- German 'Maddie' suspect could be free in 2025 after cleared of separate sex crimes
- China slaps provisional tariffs on EU brandy imports
- Ex-skipper Skelton eyes Wallabies November return
- Spanish great Iniesta leaves indelible legacy after retirement
- Indian Kashmir elects first regional government in a decade
- Hong Kong stocks crash, oil prices retreat on fading China boost
- Man City accuse Premier League of 'misleading' claims after legal case
- Duo wins Physics Nobel for key breakthroughs in AI
Countrywide strike cripples crisis-hit Sri Lanka
A general strike crippled Sri Lanka on Thursday, as demands grew for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his family members to resign over the country's worst-ever economic crisis.
The island nation of 22 million people has been hit by months of acute shortages of food, fuel and medicines, prompting widespread protests. Thursday's strike, however, was the first time the entire country had been brought to a standstill since those demonstrations began.
Public transport was stopped, school attendance dropped and shops and offices remained closed across the country, police and regional officials said.
President Rajapaksa is due to meet political party leaders on Friday to discuss the crisis. Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, Gotabaya's elder brother and a former two-term president, reiterated his confidence on Wednesday that he would not be fired over the crisis.
In Colombo's main commercial area of Pettah, wholesale traders' shops remained shut and workers joined a march chanting: "Go home Gota. Go home Gota," referring to the president.
More than 100 trade unions, some affiliated to the Rajapaksas' ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) party, joined the general strike, whose participants are demanding that the president, prime minister and other senior officials resign.
"Today is like a public holiday in the country," a police official monitoring the island-wide situation, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP. "Hospitals are treating only emergency cases."
Across the country, vegetable markets were closed, while the country's tea plantations, a main export earner, were also shut down, residents and local media said.
The country's economic crisis took hold after the coronavirus pandemic hammered income from tourism as well as remittances from Sri Lankans abroad. Protesters also blame the Rajapaksa clan for years of mismanagement.
The government has defaulted on its $51 billion external debt and is in talks with the International Monetary Fund for an emergency bailout.
Unable to pay for fuel imports, utilities have imposed lengthy daily blackouts to ration electricity, while long lines snake around service stations as people queue for diesel, petrol and kerosene.
Hospitals are short of vital medicines and the government has appealed to citizens abroad for donations.
Thousands of demonstrators have been camped for weeks outside the president's sea-front office calling him to resign.
A.Rodriguezv--AMWN